Finding Your Match: Using Ratings & Reviews to Choose Your Agent

Buying the home you love, or selling the home you love, is a monumental life event. Not only do both involve a large financial transition, but they both can be emotional rollercoasters involving a lot of unforeseen difficulties. Choosing an agent to expertly guide you through the ups and downs is one of the most important decisions you can make!

You’ll end up spending a lot of time with your real estate agent, especially if you’re searching for a home over the course of many months. You want someone that you’re comfortable with you, someone who you communicate well with and someone who is responsive and on the ball.

Besides personal compatibility, you should consider the following factors:

Local Expertise - you want an agent who knows the neighborhood you’re buying or selling in, so that they can make informed suggestions about how much to offer or what to list your home at

Special Experience - if you’re looking to purchase a particular kind of property (i.e., a short sale), you’ll want to work with someone who has experience with these kinds of deals

Responsive - now, you shouldn’t expect your agent to instantly reply to the email you sent them at 3 a.m., but they should get back to you quickly, whether it’s via email, text or phone

There’s always an element of guesswork when you’re trying to choose an agent, but we’ve developed a great, transparent tool to help you find the agents who will likely be the best fit for you and your needs. Our reviews are from people like you who have worked with our agents, and we show you what kind of transaction, what area it was in, and what price range it was. You can get great insight into an agent’s personality and skill set from the reviews.

The power of ZipRealty, the internet and technology brought this buyer to me. Getting onto my platform, I checked emails and found an email from a potential seller wanting to sell her condominium in my territory. She indicated that her mom lived in the home currently, but my help was needed to not only sell her condo, but also find a rental home for her mom and help her to make arrangements to get moved. I soon found out that my seller lives in United Arab Emirates, half way around the world from me in Southern California. She saw my ratings and reviews on the ZipRealty site and contacted me! There is a 12-hour difference between my seller and myself, so she would call me early in the morning or late at night. We had a few bumps along the way with a couple of failed escrows (buyer's challenges), but subsequently, 5 months later, after many phone calls and visits to the condo and looking for a home for her mom, the condo was sold and her mom was securely relocated to a new place. Her mom only speaks Spanish, and I only speak English, so a translating app on my smartphone was critical. I feel like I have made a friend in this part of the world and will certainly be helping her in the future with any subsequent real estate needs she may have here. This is one of the most enjoyable and memorable transactions I have done in the nine years I have been with ZipRealty.

We’re so glad Fran was able to make a connection - and a friend - through ZipRealty ratings & reviews!